Explanation of Why Scott Derrickson Walked Away From Marvel's DOCTOR STRANGE 2
Marvel fans were a little surprised and confused when director Scott Derrickson walked away from Marvel’s Doctor Strange sequel. All we knew at the time was that there was a separation over creative differences, and Derrickson ended up being replaced by Sam Raimi in the director’s chair.
During a recent interview with CinemaBlend, screenwriter C. Robert Cargill opened up about why he and Derrickson left the project, which would become Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In the end, Derrkckson just didn’t want to make the Doctor Strange movie that Marvel wanted to make.
“It was creative differences. [Scott Derrickson] wanted to do one movie, and Marvel wanted to do another movie. So he sat there and said, ‘Well shit, I’ve got this great script that I wrote with Cargill, and I’m really proud of.’ We were actually going to go out to other directors for The Black Phone, and Scott was like, he called me up and said, ‘Dude, I have to make this movie. It’s gotta be my movie, I have to do this. Do you mind waiting until after I’m done with [Doctor Strange 2,] and he really wanted to bring me onto Strange as well. But in the event that it didn’t happen, he was like, ‘Do you mind waiting?’ And I was like, ‘You know what, if you feel this passionately about it, no. I’ll wait a couple years to make this movie.’”
As Derrickson was trying to figure what he wanted to do, the decision ultimately made to pursue the project where he wouldn’t have to compromise his vision. So, he walked away from Doctor Strange 2 and jumped into The Black Phone. Cargill went on to say:
“It came down to Scott, and Scott’s like, ‘Well, I can make this movie that I’m compromising what I wanted to do on, or I could make The Black Phone,’ and he goes, ‘You know, I want to make a movie with Cargill. I’m gonna go make The Black Phone.’ It was, as he said publically, it was a hard choice to leave Strange behind; but it made it easier that he had a movie that he was looking forward to. And then the experience was just so great that we’re just are so proud and happy with what we made.”
While I’m excited about what Sam Raimi is cooking up for the sequel, it would be interesting to one day learn how Derrickson’s version of the sequel would have been different than what Raimi and Marvel end up giving us. In the meantime we’ve got Raimi’s Doctor Strange Movie and Derrickson’s The Black Phone to entertain us.